The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley

Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026--San Antonio

The Palm House by Gwendoline is a short novel that is constructed much like the old Seinfeld TV Show.  There's not a lot of story here.  It concentrates on two long-time friends, the people they know in common, and the conversations among them.  It has been longlisted for the Booker Prize.  The people are interesting, and at times I found myself laughing.  Set in London, Edmund is a single man who has worked for 25 years for a prestigious magazine.  There are hints that he may be gay, but he never seems to date anyone.  When a new publisher is named who wants to change the magazine in ways he feels will lower its quality, he becomes depressed and, thanks to a recent inheritance, resigns.  But he doesn't know what to do with himself.  Laura is struggling with life herself.  She has a difficult mother, and is tired of the lack of success in her life.  She has never had her own place; instead she has lived in shared, rather dilapidated apartments with roommates.  She can't quit work, but toward the end of the story she is able to buy a studio apartment which will be all her own after a small inheritance after her father's death.  The book consists of interactions between Edmund and Laura when they are together, and interactions of them with larger groups--the former co-employees of Edmund's at the magazine or parties or casual gatherings with friends they have in common.  I liked the fact that the author trusted me as a reader to make connections at times to information I already had on previous pages rather than dwelling on repeating information.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Transcription by Ben Lerner

Friday, Sept. 11, 2026--San Antonio

Transcription by Ben Lerner is a short novel built around 3 main characters--Thomas, a sophisticated artist (writer, filmmaker, professor), his son Max, and Max's best friend (unnamed) who was Thomas's student was mentored by Thomas.  There have been difficulties throughout their lives.  Part of it is due to no matter what the conversation, Thomas tends to take it in different directions with his knowledge of philosphy, history, etc., which endears him to students and acquaintances but frustrates Max and his friend.  But he is also rather crotchety.  He wants Max to follow in his footsteps, but Max has never felt close to his father.  His mother died early, and Max has been put in boarding schools all his life because it was convenient for his father.  He rebels against his father's desires, becmes a lawyer, and lives across the continent from Thomas.  The protege is fascinated by Thomas and seems more like a son to him.  The book takes place in the mostly in the present when the protege goes to Thomas's home to get a final interview since Thomas is aging and has barely survived COVID when he was 90; he will publish the interview and will attend a conference in Europe of researchers of the works of Thomas where he will report on it.  Another big part of the novel is a conversation (communication?) between the Max and the protege after Thomas's death.  But the real gist of the nvel seems to be how Thomas confuses in his mind his memories of the two 45-year-old friends.  He seems to have a closer relationship today with the protege and to think that memories he has of him and Max are actually memories of him and the protege.  So the novel ends up questioning with how real memories are and how realistic a transscription can be of an interview in relation to what was true in real life.  There's much more in this little novel, but that is what I got from it.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams

Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026--San Antonio

I really don't quite know how to describe The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams, a novel that has been longlisted for this year's Booker Prize.  It seems to be filled with metaphors and is set in a declining university city located in a lush climate with buildings decaying and the plants rapidly taking over the city and suffering from population loss.  It is contrasted with a modern dynamic city built in a dessert and filled with shiny skyscrapers where some of the characters are from and where many locals would rather live.  Agathe, the main character is a university drop-out who was likely the most intelligent student at the university.  Her family has been decaying much as the city where she lives.  Her mother attempted suicide when she was a child; her father, a former member of the faculty, is disgusted with her and has built his academic success on writing lots of novels in which he, she, and her mother are the central characters; and she has lived most of her life with her uncle remaining estranged from her father and her mother.  She works for a professor in which she has secretly taken over most of the professor's university duties--planning the syllabi and the lessons, marking and grading the papers the students submit, etc., and is happy living a quiet, isolated life where she is paid well for her work without needing any recognition for it.  An event has taken place at the university where a graduate student named Adam has come in conflict during a lecture period with a professor from a minority background named Jacob--each having offended the other with name-calling at the end of the conflict, so the university community is in an uproar regarding who was in the wrong and what to do about it.  The professor who employs Agathe is on the side of Adam since they both are outsiders from the modern city in the desert (and also because she seems to have a crush on him).  Most of the university administration seem to be on the side of Jacob.  The professor asks Agathe to establish a relationship with Adam to try to learn more about the event, how he feels about the situation, and what is currently happening.  In the meantime, the decaying of the city is increasing rapidly, especially since the gardeners have gone on strike for not being appreciated or paid enough.  They march in protest in rows and columns much like a military brigade.  So what is the book really about since almost everything seems to be a metaphor for something else?  I can't tell you for sure.  What I can say, is that it is set in modern times (maybe even slightly in the future).  There has always been a power conflict between the city and the university.  Climate change is definitely happending.  The university seems to have adopted a progressive posture--admitting more minorities and international students and trying to uphold standards designed to protect feelings--but it has also failed to maintain the qualities that have made it one of the top universities in the world, since there seems to be grade inflation, faculty being lax in maintaining teaching standards, students hiring others to do their required assignments for themselves, etc.  So the city is falling apart, the university is falling apart, and society is falling apart.  Is it a prediction for the near future?  I gave the book 3 stars out of 5.

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026--San Antonio

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout is a great novel which is longlisted for the Booker Prize.  (It's the fifth book I have read by her and all of them have been well worth reading.)  It's my opinion that in a way, the book is about changes occurring that seem to represent the beginning of the end of civilization as we have known it.  But it is told by showcasing a central character, who is a simple but great man--a man who is respected and liked, who is a kind and good person, and who is a high school history teacher--Mr. Dam (called affectionately Damn-Dam by his students).  Events taking place mostly in the fall of 2024 (in his personal life, in his classroom, within his family, and within the country) illustrate the changes taking place. Open confrontation, cursing, and name-calling are replacing civil discourse and niceties within society.  Dam recognizes this and is puzzled by it.  He keeps questioning:  Do we really have free will?  It's a question that goes two directions:  If we do, why do we choose to make negative changes in life?  If we don't, could that be why things are changing?  But he is also learning that life is hard, that people have secrets, that having certain knowledges can be depressing.  And he is learning that everyone he knows is different in ways from what he thinks they are like because of their secrets in their lives.  Even Damn-Dam has a few critical secrets in himself.  It's a short book that can be read quickly, but one worth reading.  I gave the book 5 stars out of 5.

So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder

Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026--San Antonio

So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder was a chore for me to get through.  Its characters are rather obnoxious most of the time.  Supposedly, they are friends for life after graduating from ("Not State" which their college shirts say to emphasize they are all so intelligent that they got into the University of Pennsylvania--an Ivy League school).  They all move to the "IT city" (New York) after graduation.  They pursue the "correct" career paths, try to impress each other with who have have met or seen in the city and by getting invited to the best parties, and by spending more money than they are making on the most trendy items at each moment in time.  The book covers them over the years as jobs change, as couples come together/break up, as marriages occur and children become centerpieces in their lives, as they observe or learn of cheating by their partners, as some leave the city to live elsewhere, and as each time they come together there are arguments and fall-outs among them.  By the end of the book, most of them have not been speaking to each other for some time.  Does any of that sound like a novel anyone would love to read?  Of course as the reader, I could see the mistakes happening as they occurred and could figure out the regrets that would develop over time.  And at the end, there are indications that some mistakes might be overcome, but the book stops there.  So the big question becomes, will they continue living their miserable lives as they have so far (failing at truly being friends or being happy) or will a few of them be able to make corrections in life and find happiness they might already have had for 25 years if they truly had been intelligent in the beginning.  I gave the book 3 stars out of 5.

The Midnight Train by Matt Haig

Tuesday, Aug. 25. 2026--San Antonio

I recently read the preceding novel to this second of two books.  I did not like that first novel much.  The Midnight Train by the same author, Matt Haig, is a much better book.  There is a common theme in both books; one based on wanting to live a better life.  In this one the story is about a man who has great regrets.  He has died and is being taken on a ride to review his whole life with the promise of entering eternity at the end of the ride.  During the ride, he sees flashes of events passing and watches a photograph on the wall of the train car of himself aging in relation to the time of the events.  He is being guided by a woman he knew as a child and has been dead herself for many years. She has volunteered from within her eternity to guide him to his own.  Occasionally, the train stops at the more important events in his life so he can observe and, therefore, relive them.  Unfortunately, the most important events in anyone's life include both the best ones and the worst ones.  So the train ride is both positive and punishing.  During each stop, he is actually observing rather than reliving each event, so he gets to notice things that he hadn't in real life--aspects of events he hadn't noticed and actions byboth him and others and their reactions to them.  He knows from the beginning that he has made mistakes in life and regrets them and their consequences, but observing these events allows him to start to notice when wrong turns were taking place--when he made poor decisions and when those he loved reacted negatively to them.  He wishes he had lived his life differently and begins questionning whether it is too late to do anything about it.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Kin by Tayari Jones

Friday, Aug. 21, 2026--San Antonio

Kin by Tayari Jones is a novel set in the South during the 1960s--beginning in a small Louisiana town where the two main characters are Black females who have been best friends all their lives.  One was raised by her aunt after her father killed his wife and himself just a month after the baby was born.  The other was raised by her grandmother after her unmarried mother left just after giving birth.  Most of the book takes place during the 3 years following their graduation from high school when their lives go separate directions.  Niecie leaves home to attend Spelman College in Atlanta, and Annie leaves home to go to Memphis to try to find her mother (after having been given an address where she might be living).  The young women stay in touch through letters as events in their new lives unfold.  The car that Annie and 3 friends are driving to Memphis breaks down, and they find themselves living and working by barter on a former sharecropper farm which is now a whorehouse with the women each having one of the former sharecropper shacks for hosting their johns.  Niecie finds her plans for trying to easily fit in at Spelman derailed when she accidentally takes a seat in the last row of the white section of the bus (thinking it to be the first row of the Colored section) to take her to Atlanta and the driver kicks her off the bus.  He leaves with her luggage holding the wardrobe she had prepared for college still on the bus to be lost forever.  Life can be difficult for everyone after leaving their hometown, and both young women are learning this quickly.  This was the period of uproar involving protests, forced desegregation, and upset people on both sides of the color divide in the South.  The fact that the Supreme Court had made their ruling did not change things overnight.  There are ups and downs in the lives of both girls during the next 3+ years--more ups in Niecie's life and more downs in Annie's, but their friendship holds throughout it.  As the reader, you get to live through it all with the both of them.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.